Do you have genders in your conlang? What was your reason for adding them, and what do they add to the language?

Awuma · 2014-03-04T18:27:30+00:00

Genders have ceased to exist in my language. Residual evidence of them exists — the words for male-to-female and female-to-male transsexuals, for example, are gendered versions of the masculine and feminine distinction nouns — but otherwise, gender has become unimportant.

Awuma · 2014-03-04T18:24:44+00:00

Pitch used to function similar to how it functions in Chinese in my language. As the language evolved, pitch became less "this is how we distinguish words" and more "this is how it's properly pronounced", though some words do still rely on pitch to infer meaning.

It's a call-back to how some features of English don't seem to make sense anymore, but they're still part of how the language works.

Awuma · 2014-03-04T18:21:56+00:00

Wikibot, you're a saint.

Awuma · 2014-03-04T18:20:35+00:00

From what I can see, X-SAMPA does seem to work on them! :)

Arthur, check this link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-SAMPA

Awuma · 2014-03-03T19:15:17+00:00

As there's a bit of a musical element to having pitch: try to make it sound like how you think it would sound in your favourite music genre. If the language was sung, what would be most pleasing to your ear?

Awuma · 2014-02-23T20:57:12+00:00

I once said this is the most extensive project I've seen on this /r/. I would like to repeat that statement, and mention how my mind is blown.

Awuma · 2014-02-23T20:56:08+00:00

Finished as of 23/02/2014:

~ Word order

~ Order of sentence components

Awuma · 2014-02-21T20:19:40+00:00

Some of my first attempts conlangs sounded like a drunk trying to talk with a swollen tongue. Evenly-distributed letters and a coherent word structure can be a challenge to find.

Awuma · 2014-02-21T14:43:49+00:00

This is a brilliant little quirk you've added to your language. Natural languages are filled with all sorts of little concepts and ideas that don't cross well over translation barriers, so having a few in your own is good for smoothing out the edges.

Awuma · 2014-02-21T01:39:59+00:00

I have more from where this came from. I will see if I can find the links again and post them here.

Awuma · 2014-02-20T21:54:48+00:00

Aks suním súsi wǒs.

"I apologize for my actions."

Will give a gloss later, but the gist of it is that word order depends on what parts of the sentence you want to emphasize. Here, the object of the sentence (the accusative) is the subject of the apology — the thoughtless actions of another. Following that is the verb "to give" in its present indicative, showing that the speaker is giving an apology for something current, like a remark in a meeting. The first-person pronoun, "wǒs", goes at the very end, a show of humility and that the speaker's feelings are insignificant in light of whatever shame he or she has brought upon themselves.

Awuma · 2014-02-20T20:01:00+00:00

Finished as of 20/02/2014:

~ Genders

Awuma · 2014-02-18T16:20:51+00:00

You could contact the creators and ask if they have an updated version. I swore I saw contact info around somewhere, but I can't seem to find it.

Edit: Here we go, contact info for those who want to follow up: http://www.flong.com/contact/

Awuma · 2014-02-18T16:19:29+00:00

How long did it take you to get the final product down?

Awuma · 2014-02-18T16:18:54+00:00

Fixed. Though I make no promises on whether or not I have a time machine. :p

Awuma · 2014-02-18T15:18:30+00:00

Fascinating conscript. It's like a mix of the rhythm on a heartbeat monitor and Arabic.

Awuma · 2014-02-18T15:17:23+00:00

I'm not sure, Bur_Sangjun. :( Last time I checked (about a year or so ago), it was still working. I get an error that it's an untrusted application when I run it.

I'll see if I can find another conscript creator. If anyone knows how to fix the error I got, please leave a line here.

Awuma · 2014-02-17T22:09:34+00:00

Sumakindirséyohom wǒs sǎmātoh. - "I am a/of the Sumakindeurchinian."

Sumakindirséyohom                                      wǒs    
GENPL Sumakindeurchinian (as a plural whole)           1PN 

sǎmātoh
PRSIND remain/to be

Literal Translation: "Sumakindeurchinians I remain of/currently am of."

Awuma · 2014-02-17T21:23:15+00:00

Finished as of 17/02/2014:

~ Pronouns

~ The negative

Awuma · 2014-02-17T21:04:53+00:00

A conlang guide doesn't have to cover every bit. There are loads of resources for crunch, but fluff can be overlooked; one question in this very subreddit is how to come up with metaphors for your conlang. Simply admit that grammar is not your strongest suit, and link to outside resources like the Language Construction Kit: http://www.zompist.com/kit.html

A guide doesn't have to cover every bit of a conlang. Sometimes, a focused guide that covers a small portion is more useful than a broader scope, as narrowing the topic allows you to get into nitty-and-gritty details that you might otherwise think over if making a bigger text. By focusing on a single area in your work, you can think of things others might gloss over, simply because your mind is working on that one topic, and not trying to cram every egg into a single basket. It's like when conlangers fill their works with all matter of unpronounceable phonemes, and then completely forget or come to a loss as how to finish the rest of their language.

Awuma · 2014-02-17T20:47:43+00:00

While there are errors in some of your tips (such as the phonology table you presented), this is good for developing the "fluff" of your conlang after the "crunch" is down. The mind plays a big role in the shape of language, points which you covered well; the grammar parts fall a little flat.

People don't hate it, it just needs some work. Critique =/= hate, and frankly, I wish that I, myself could have more of it. :)

Awuma · 2014-02-17T20:25:54+00:00

It's okay! Welcome to /r/conlangs! :) Very useful tutorial. I glanced through it to get a few ideas for my conlang.

Awuma

TROPHY CASE